2. Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, 1937 – Isolationistic influence Neutrality Act of 1936 – “Cash and Carry” Selective service act of October1940 – Peacetime draft – Conscientious Objection Lend-Lease Act 1941 – Economic declaration of war on Germany } Terms and Forms of Aid to Allied powers

3. Office of War Information (OWI) 1942 – organized the distribution of war information to the public to help create means of understanding the war http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eoE12ywD zA&feature=related War Production Board (WPB) 1942 – Oversaw industrial transformation

4. Office of War and Mobilization 1942 – supervised efforts to distribute proper materials for converted industries, regulated production of civilian goods, established production contracts, negotiate organized labor, and controled inflation Woman’s Army Corps (WAC) 1943 – provided secretarial workers, truck drivers, instructors, and lab technicians

5. War contributed to increased prices and shortages in food, housing, gas, clothing, transportation – Standard of living decreased as a result – Increases in salary due to jobs created by the war did not improve purchasing power of most citizens Many Americans were unhappy that they had to sacrifice so much – Wealthy lived luxuriously on products purchased on the newly created black market

6. Wartime rationing: Sugar: May 1942 Coffee November: 1942 Canned Goods: March 1, 1943 (Meat and butter later that month) – Meat: 28oz. per person per week – Butter: 4oz. per person per week Gasoline Rationing (May 1941): Stickers distributed based on use of the vehicle (i.e. for workers commute, on the job use, pleasure, and emergency vehicles) – Labled “A” through “E” to indicate usage and amount of gasoline allowed for purchase Led to suspicion and scandal

7. April 1943: the government declares 27 million workers "essential", forbidding them to leave their jobs Many union members who committed to a no- strike pledge held protests Protests concerned workers’ safety and working conditions Many were “walkouts”